| So let American publishers sue to find out what "fair use" means. Doubtless the case will go to appeal; by the time it ends they, like music publishers before them, may experience a surge in demand for their books, especially those not readily available in bookshops. If, for example, someone searching on Google on a subject in which they are interested unexpectedly comes across a relevant book, reads a bit and orders a copy, one more book is sold, providing income to publisher and author and revenue for Google from contextual advertising. The search engine has undoubtedly been arrogant in having an opt-out rather than opt-in policy for the authors of the books it has scanned, but there is a strong public interest in bringing the millions of books lying fallow in libraries to the world's attention. A colleague was delighted to find that his copyrighted but out-of-print book was featured on Google Book Search, even though no one had asked his permission. Humankind is the winner.
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